Saturday, December 29, 2018

Have you registered for the 2019 Central Division meeting, February 20–23 in Denver? If not, take a moment to register online now!

In addition to colloquium and symposium sessions, this year’s meeting features a robust program complete with sessions sponsored by APA committees and affiliated groups. Highlights include the following sessions:

Early bird registration rates ($125 for APA members, $240 for non-members, and $40 for student members) are available until online registration closes on February 6. Central meeting registration will not be available February 7 through February 19. If you don’t register online by February 6, you can still register on-site at the meeting—but note that on-site registration rates are $50 higher than early bird registration for all categories.

Please note: You’ll save an additional $5 on meeting registration if you opt not to receive a paper copy of the program. The meeting program is available online, and our free meeting app for smartphones and tablets also contains the full program. Session locations will be added to the app on the first day of the meeting.

Haven’t yet renewed your membership? Renew now! In order to receive the discounted meeting rate available only to paid members, your APA membership must be current. (Lapsed members who have not renewed their memberships for the 2018–2019 year pay the non-member rate of $240 in advance or $290 at the meeting.)

Friday, December 28, 2018

We are in the midst of one of Trump’s most destructive meltdowns. In an effort to strong-arm Congress into funding his xenophobic wall, he put a government shutdown in effect days before Christmas. As a result, hundreds of thousands of public servants are working for us without pay and many more are simply not working at all.

We must do what we can to fight against Trump's dangerous actions.
We can’t do anything about the shutdown right now, but we can help Democrats get elected to office who will speak out against him and vote against Trump-supported policies. Progressive leader Delegate Jennifer Boysko is one of those Democrats. She running for Virginia Senate and she needs our help now...

ADL Calls on the EU to Take Strong Action After Report Shows Anti-Semitism is Deepening Across Europe

New York, NY, December 10, 2018 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed deep concern with an European Union survey which found that anti-Semitism is pervasive and deepening across Europe, and it urged the EU to take action to protect Jewish communities threatened by an increasingly hostile environment.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey found that half of European Jews worry about being the target of verbal assaults and 40 percent live in daily fear of being physically attacked. The survey also found that as a result of those fears, 28 percent of those polled “always or frequently” avoid going to Jewish institutions or attending community events. And 38 percent of European Jews have considered emigrating from Europe for safety reasons, compared to 29 percent six years ago.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said:

The Agency for Fundamental Rights report confirms what we’ve heard anecdotally in recent years: more than ever European Jews are fearing for their safety and questioning whether there is a future for them in their home countries. Not surprisingly, the looming threat of violent anti-Semitism is the root cause of their fear.

This pervasive sense of insecurity is unacceptable and must end. The Jewish people should not have to live in a constant state of fear while going about their daily lives. Jews have every right to be able to live openly and freely as Jews and to be fully accepted in society. If they cannot, the risk increases that the Jewish communities of Europe will severely contract or even disappear from disaffiliation and emigration.

We call on all European governments to live up to and fully implement the commitments they made last week in the Council of the European Union’s unanimously adopted “Declaration on the Fight Against Anti-Semitism and the Development of a Common Security Approach to Better Protect Jewish Communities and Institutions in Europe.” Those commitments must translate into greater security for Jews across Europe, allowing them to live openly and freely as Jews.

Several European leaders have said words to the effect that “Europe will not be Europe without its Jews.” The time has come to take decisive steps to prevent that outcome.